


Exactly Who You'd Expect.. Or Not

by Choose_wisely



Series: Miraculous Self Indulgence [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/F, F/M, Juleka discovers Chat Noir's identity, Juleka is my special bean, Nathanaël and Juleka discuss things, Nathanaël discovers Ladybug's identity, Nobody can tell me that Nathanaël isn't Juleka and Rose's awkward third wheel I will fight ×, Poor tomato, Shy buds, They talk, Wallflowers gotta stick together man
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-04-14
Updated: 2016-11-25
Packaged: 2018-06-02 04:43:47
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 1,733
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6551512
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Choose_wisely/pseuds/Choose_wisely
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Juleka discovers Chat Noir's identity on accident. Nathanaël discovers Ladybug's identity by coincidence.</p><p>Inspired by 'the answers are living indefinitely' by HearJessRoar on this site and 'Nathanael Headcannon' on official-ladyblog's tumblr </p><p>This work is a partner ficlet to my work 'fuck me, I'm awful at titles but I'm a decent writer I promise'. Neither has to be read to understand the story. Presumably, this takes place before the timeline of that fic and after The Evillustrator.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. An Artist's Eye

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [the answers are living indefinitely](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6093136) by [HearJessRoar](https://archiveofourown.org/users/HearJessRoar/pseuds/HearJessRoar). 



> This fic will only have four chapters, at most. One talking about Nathanaël discovering Marinette is Ladybug, another about Juleka's discovery of Adrien, a talk between Rose, Juleka, and Nathanaël regarding Nath's feelings for Marinette, which leads to a private discussion between Jules and Nath about Paris' finest.  
> Of course it has to be these two that figure it out first. Nath is a precious tomato and Juleka is my special bean <3

Nathanaël blithely crosses out the comic of himself saving Marinette. Truly, how could he be so  _stupid?!_

Marinette doesn't need his saving. She never did. 

Because Marinette is Ladybug. And damn, he should have seen that coming. 

Nathanaël remembers his 'moment' -- the moment all de-akumatized people have just after they are freed from evil. Kneeling prostrate as the dark magic washes away, recalling fuzzy memories from the akumatizement, looking up just in time to see Ladybug and Chat Noir fist bumping, realizing what has happened. Nathanaël, in that moment, had laid his eyes on Ladybug in person for the first time, only to realize that it was not his first time seeing her at all.

No, Nathanaël would have been offended at himself if he  _hadn't_ recognized her. It took only a moment of scanning her to realize that those were the same shoulders he spent the majority of his classtime painstakingly perfecting. The same freckles he had meticulously memorized the pattern of. The same goddamn  _eyes_ that he had spent so long trying to match the colour and depth of. 

Magical fucking mask or not, he was an  _artist, goddamnit,_ and here he was looking at his muse. An artist's eye always knows its muse. He had no doubt in his mind that the love of his life, Marinette Dupain-Cheng, was Paris' saviour.

And really, who else  _could_ it have been? Marinette was the sweetest girl her knew, and one if the bravest. She was agile in P.E. despite being generally clumsy, stood up to Chloe, and genuinely cared for the well being and happiness of people around her. He couldn't think of a single person more suited to being Ladybug.

So, he crossed out his drawing with only a small tinge of remorse. On the next page, her as Ladybug standing in a battle stance on the rooftop, the picture of confidence and strength.

No, Marinette Dupain-Cheng is not in need of his saving. She never was. Surprisingly, it does nothing to dampen the flame that burns for her inside of him.

If anything, he loves her more.

 

 


	2. A Curious Mind

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This includes the headcannon that Juleka is Jagged Stone's kid, which I'm pretty sure I found somewhere on tumblr. Sorry for stealing your idea, dude.

Really, it wasn't Juleka's intention to unmask one of Paris' beloved superheroes. Sure, she was curious, but she respected their privacy and understood _why_ __ __they needed to keep their identities a secret.

She was just trying to get home, really. It wasn't her fault that her dad insisted upon living in secluded backstreets to avoid crazed fans and paparazzi. Getting to her house on foot involved an hour-long traipse through the mazes of Paris' secluded alleyways and back roads. Not that she minded, really. Her legs were long and she was pretty fit, and besides, as a goth, she enjoys the dark of alleys. She knows the way through the labyrinth by heart at this point.

So imagine her surprise when the infamous Chat Noir plunks himself down into the very alleyway she happens to be passing, ducks behind a dumpster, and lets whatever magic makes him  _him_ fizzle away in flash of green light not ten feet away from her. Caught off guard, she doesn't look away in time not to see her heartthrob of a classmate,  _Adrien Agreste_ , nimbly step out from behind the dumpster and stretch towards the sky. His closed eyes and groan of pleasure (from stretching, you dirties) give her just enough cover to scramble behind the wall of the pass before her can see her. He stretches a bit more and cracks his spine before she hears a small, mildly grating voice pipe up and ask for camembert cheese. Letting her curiosity get the best of her, she peeks around to see what has just made the noise and sees a small floating black cat blob hovering by Adrien's face. Adrien, seeming to be in a good mood, smiles at the thing, which has crossed its nubby arms, and rifles around his bag, before producing the desired snack. The cat blob gulps down the cut of cheese in one go before diving into the breast of Adrien's overshirt, which he is holding open. As Adrien starts walking, Juleka realizes that she is about to be caught and fucking  _bolts,_ running in what she hopes is the opposite direction of wherever he's headed.

But as she runs, her mind goes into overdrive. Oh so helpfully, her mind replays the phrase  _Adrien middle-name motherfucking Agreste is Chat goddamn Noir. Hooooooly fuck._

Gentle, mild-mannered, reserved Adrien is Paris' flirtatiously cocky saviour? That is throwing her for a fucking  _loop._ Still, she can kinda see how that works. As a quiet girl, she notices a lot about people, and she's noticed that Adrien is a pretty fucking lonely guy, suppressed and ignored by his father. She feels bad for the kid, really. As over the top as Chat is, it not all that mind blowing to come to the conclusion that he's a pretty smothered in his normal life. 

Oh,  _man._ This shit is  _gold._

 

 


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Juleka and Rose look at Nathanaël's sketches.

Okay, so, it had been a while since Nathanaël had realized Marinette was Ladybug. It's... It's not that he forgot, obviously, it's just... With finals happening, and a bunch of school projects being assigned, and his little online art gallery he had been operating for extra money, not a lot of time had been left for mooning over Marinette. Not that he didn't want to, of course, he was just too busy.

So it's not like anyone could really blame him for forgetting which sketchbook he had that crossed-out comic of himself saving her in. In fact, the very existence of that particular comic had, um, slipped his mind. Kind of.

And, besides, it wasn't all that rare for him to let Rose and Juleka look through his sketchbooks. Er, his school sketchbooks, at least, because those tended to have less incriminating material in them. He had learned his lesson the hard way with that sort of thing. But the couple was allowed to look through his sketchbooks, as long as they asked first. Because they were his friends. And friends show each other their art.

So he sat there in the back of the classroom at break, he and the two girls the only ones there since Ms. Bustier trusted them enough not to cause any minor natural disasters while she was gone, as most teenagers were prone to do, while the two flipped through the thick pages and examined the sketches diligently as he picked at his black nail polish. He was just starting to think of what colour scheme he would use for his latest commission when Rose piped up

"Oh, Nathanäel... did something happen with Marinette?"

Rose's query piqued his interest immediately. But really, nothing had happened with Marinette, and if something had, like, when he was sleeping or something, he would certainly like to know about it. But Rose's voice sounded deeply concerned, and for a moment he wondered if he could be talking about Marinette's little secret... But no, no one could have known about it, because he had been dedicated to keeping her secret for her... There was no way he could have let it slip...

His throat suddenly dry, he asked back "What do you mean, Rose?"

She turned his notebook away from herself and her girlfriend to show him the offending article. Nathanäel recognized the crossed-out sketches immediately, wondering in a panic how much she could have gathered from those two pages

"This was the comic you were drawing in class the day you became the Evillustrator!" She exclaimed as he cringed at her bluntness. It wasn't exactly something he was proud of. "Marinette is in it, see? But you crossed out the panel of the two of you embracing!"

"Oh, um, well, it's just uh... I'm the Evillustrator in that comic, aren't I? Except, um, not evil. But like, I was evil later, and then I actually terrorized Marinette. So, uh, it's just kinda weird to look at the comic and see myself akumatized. I um, dont really like... I don't feel proud of that, exactly, y'know?"

"Oh, okay. But what's this thing with Ladybug on the next page? I don't think I've ever seen you draw Ladybug without it being a commission before." Well yes, he had of course taken extra care not to let them see his drawings of rather erogenously posed Ladybugs... "Oh! Do you have a crush on Ladybug now, then?"

"Er, well, I just..." He faltered, blushing, and cleared his throat "Ladybug is like, the local hero, right? Her and Chat Noir, I mean. And, um... I mean, what kind of Parisian artist would I be if I didn't dedicate some works to her? Not that... not that like, I don't like her or anything, because she's obviously super cool... And she saved me that day, didn't she?" I

t was at this point that Juleka looked up at him, face unreadable. It didn't do anything to calm his nerves. Juleka's gaze was almost always unsettling.

He expected to be chewed out some more, but instead Rose just shrugged and said, "Oh, okay." Juleka, however, didn't drop her gaze from Nathanaël's as Rose resumed leafing through the pages of his sketchbook.

Nathanaël could feel hot moisture beading underneath his clothes. His throat bobbed nervously under the stare of her blood red eyes. She was an eagle, ready to swoop down and eat him whole, and he was a red, red mouse, trying to use powers of camouflage that no one in his gene pool possessed.

She finally opened her mouth to speak, catching him between her beak. "Nathanaël, break's almost over and Rose has to meet with the dance committee at lunch today. Can I hang out with you and look at your sketches some more?"

Nathanaël knew he was on his way to being swallowed. He could say that he was busy as well, but it's not like he had any other friends or clubs to go to, and his house was too far away to walk to and from during lunch. He could say that he wanted to go somewhere to eat, but Juleka would just ask to tag along. The beak had closed. There was no way out.

"Um, sure. Where should we go?"

"To the back of the school. It's pretty private, so no one else will see your sketches."

And at that, the bell rang.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Thanksgiving


End file.
